{"id":42337,"date":"2018-03-26T15:53:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T19:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=42337"},"modified":"2018-03-26T15:53:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T19:53:45","slug":"we-got-fooled-by-trumps-negotiating-technique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=42337","title":{"rendered":"We got fooled by Trump&#8217;s &#8220;negotiating&#8221; technique"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Trump throws a dead, smelly cat on the negotiating table. It&#8217;s his opening bid. Billions of dollars of tariffs on everyone. &#8220;Everyone&#8221; predictably complains and he backtracks. Even Australia got exempted on the aluminum and steel tariffs.\u00a0 The idea of the dead cat is to freak everyone out into giving you oodles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The real culprit is China. It threatened retaliation against American exports.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Finally calmer heads prevailed and the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0over the weekend runs a story:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ChinaWSJ.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-42345\" src=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ChinaWSJ.jpg\" alt=\"ChinaWSJ\" width=\"600\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ChinaWSJ.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/ChinaWSJ-300x101.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">You can read the full story <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/u-s-china-quietly-seek-trade-solutions-after-days-of-loud-threats-1522018524?mod=djemalertNEWS\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Today, stockmarkets are up strongly\u00a0 &#8212; proving, once again, that panicking doesn&#8217;t pay.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Facebook &#8212; now a cockroach stock?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">George, a reader, asks:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;\">Is the Facebook business model valid any longer now that privacy concerns seem to have traction?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I know two things: Continuing bad press is causing Facebook&#8217;s stock to fall. This is FB in the last month:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FBLastMonth.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-42340\" src=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FBLastMonth.jpg\" alt=\"FBLastMonth\" width=\"603\" height=\"278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FBLastMonth.jpg 603w, https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/FBLastMonth-300x138.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 603px) 100vw, 603px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Second, Facebook is an incredibly powerful advertising platform. Everyone who uses it loves it.\u00a0 It&#8217;s very cost effective. Google is to sell product. Facebook is great for brand influencing and for demographic targeting &#8212; as Trump&#8217;s people found out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">How Facebook plays out long-term is anyone&#8217;s guess. I sold my Facebook last week, figuring that this wasn&#8217;t a ride I wanted to be on &#8212; for now. Too many cockroach events I can&#8217;t identify &#8212; especially those coming from Washington and Europe. Too many people deserting the platform.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">For now I prefer Amazon:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/AmazonBoxes.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-42342\" src=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/AmazonBoxes.png\" alt=\"AmazonBoxes\" width=\"325\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/AmazonBoxes.png 325w, https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/AmazonBoxes-216x300.png 216w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Amazon delivers every day to us.\u00a0 So much easier than &#8212; God forbid &#8212; driving to the shops, which typically don&#8217;t have what we want or charge much, much more.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Long title:\u00a0 An Act To provide revenue, to regulate commerce with foreign countries, to encourage the industries of the United States, to protect American labor, and for other purposes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Enacted by the 71st United States Congress<br \/>\nPassed the House on May 28, 1929 (264-147)<br \/>\nPassed the Senate on March 24, 1930 (53-31)<br \/>\nSigned into law by President Herbert Hoover on June 17, 1930<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Tariff Act of 1930 commonly known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff or Hawley-Smoot Tariff, was an act implementing protectionist trade policies sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley and was signed into law on June 17, 1930. The act raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The tariffs under the act were the second-highest in the U.S. in 100 years, exceeded by a small margin by the Tariff of 1828. T<strong>he Act and following retaliatory tariffs by America&#8217;s trading partners were major factors of the reduction of American exports and imports by more than half during the Depression.<\/strong>\u00a0Although economists disagree by how much, the consensus view among economists and economic historians is that &#8220;The passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff exacerbated the Great Depression.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">You can read<em> Wikipedia<\/em>&#8216;s full entry <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Smoot\u2013Hawley_Tariff_Act\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Why you should never, ever invest in &#8220;developing&#8221; countries.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">A few years ago the hottest investment idea was BRIC &#8212; Brazil, Russia, India and China.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Well, you won&#8217;t believe what happened to Brazil. It&#8217;s really depressing. Corruption spelled with an extra-large capital C. Read <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/07\/14\/world\/americas\/brazil-lula-da-silva.html?action=click&amp;contentCollection=Americas&amp;module=RelatedCoverage&amp;region=EndOfArticle&amp;pgtype=article\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>this.<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Taking aerial photos<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Larry was a photographer for the N.Y. Times, and was scheduled to meet a plane on the runway to take him on a job. &#8220;Hit it,&#8221; said Larry climbing into the first plane he saw on the runway.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The pilot took off, and was soon in the air.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&#8220;OK,&#8221; said Larry, &#8220;fly low over the trees over there, I want to take a few pictures.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&#8220;What do you mean?&#8221; asked the pilot<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Larry looked at the pilot and answered annoyed, &#8220;I need to take some pictures for the N.Y. Times, so please&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There was a long pause, before the pilot asked in a shaky voice, &#8220;you mean you&#8217;re not my pilot instructor?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/HarryNewton.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21218\" src=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/HarryNewton.jpg\" alt=\"HarryNewton\" width=\"200\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/HarryNewton.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/HarryNewton-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nHarry Newton who has all his grandchildren with him in California. Here&#8217;s the oldest, Eleanor, 4, practicing her flying skills:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/EleanorPoolJumping.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-42353\" src=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/EleanorPoolJumping.jpg\" alt=\"EleanorPoolJumping\" width=\"350\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/EleanorPoolJumping.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/EleanorPoolJumping-300x253.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a>Impressive?<\/p>\n<p><script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){\n  (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),\n  m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)\n  })(window,document,'script','\/\/www.google-analytics.com\/analytics.js','ga');\n\n  ga('create', 'UA-45200733-1', 'technologyinvestor.com');\n  ga('send', 'pageview');\n<\/script>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump throws a dead, smelly cat on the negotiating table. It&#8217;s his opening bid. Billions of dollars of tariffs on everyone. &#8220;Everyone&#8221; predictably complains and he backtracks. Even Australia got exempted on the aluminum and steel tariffs.\u00a0 The idea of the dead cat is to freak everyone out into giving you oodles. The real culprit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42337"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42354,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42337\/revisions\/42354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}